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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Since Billy and the kids have been off the whole week between Christmas and New Years...we are totally out of our normal eating and sleeping patterns...which made it easy to snack on junk food and stay up til' midnight! We decided not to cook a bunch of food, we just ordered from WingStop, grabbed a couple Redbox movies and headed home to celebrate. We ate wings and watched Dolphin Tale 2, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy. We took a break from the movies to watch parts of the official "Ball Drop" in NYC, then heard fireworks being shot off around the neighborhood. We ran outside to watch, then grabbed some pots and wooden spoons, to make some of our own noise!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Santa did come! Blake had woke up early, came down and stayed in the kitchen with Aunt Sissy and I, while we gave Daddy and Taylor a bit more time to sleep in. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, so we woke them up.

The only bummer about Christmas is that Buddy, our Elf, is gone for the year. It actually makes me and the kids pretty sad. They enjoy him all month, and then it's over...this year Buddy left exactly what Taylor had been asking for- her very own plush elf! There was even a special little note along with it...

We decided not to make a huge Christmas dinner, we did a morning breakfast bake, then snacked on sweets and leftovers from the night before. Aunt Susie came over for a gift exchange and to join us for a ham sandwich lunch. It felt so good to stay in our comfy clothes, just hanging out and playing with the new goodies.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The kids have been counting down the days until Christmas Eve! Billy had to work most of the day, so when they opened the advent that morning, they were excited to get to open one gift before he left. Blake got a Minecraft Lego "First Night" set and Taylor got a Zoomer Zuppy Robot Puppy!

They got dressed and ready for the evening! Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny ARE coming tonight!!! We get to go to church as a family! The kids could barely stand to wait!

When Billy got home, we said a prayer of thanks for this whole reason for the season, Jesus! Then we went ahead and exchanged our family gifts (the kids couldn't wait any longer!). Daddy really surprised Blake with something unexpected...his very own laptop! He aspires to be an author and famous YouTube-er...so now he has everything he needs! Taylor got a cotton candy machine, skates for her build-a-bear doggy, and some other goodies! Our big family gift was a ping pong table in the basement, with the game room ready! Daddy got a surround system (that wasn't what we wanted, so we exchanged it for a Taxi Songwriter's Membership!), some décor for his studio, and exotic coffee. I was blessed with some special gifts from the kids...a new wooly throw, a silver sea turtle keychain, and the best of all...Billy wrote me a song and sent it to my email, for me to listen to! He followed that by making a beach puzzle into another gift...a family vacation this summer! We really love getting that quiet, unplugged time together.

Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny showed up, bearing gifts for the kiddos too! Both kids ended up with a whole set of MineCraft Plushies! Just them being here was gift enough, this was our favorite part! We loved going to church together...we decided to visit the new location of Faith Church in Weldon Springs. Its a larger church than we are accustomed to but we all really enjoyed the Christmas music, candle light by cell phone, and the message was spot on! We all left, full of joy, peace, and ready to have a blessed 2015 ahead!

Back at the house, we had our appetizers, made cotton candy, played ping pong & wii together. We got ready for Santa to come, Daddy read our traditional, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book, the kids went upstairs with Aunt Sissy & Uncle Danny (we had to put a baby gate at the top of the stairs to keep Taylor up there, so she wouldn't scare away Santa- it ended up locking Aunt Sissy up there too and they barely made it downstairs when Tay started crying to sleep with us...LOL!) It was a wonderful wonderful night!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Our traditional drive through Fort Zumwalt's Celebration of Lights...all comfy in our pj's, this was a perfect night to go...quiet and uncrowded this time!

We went to our annual visit to Bass Pro Shops Santa's Wonderland, to visit Santa!

We decided to light up our own little house...we made Christmas trees out of upside-down tomato cages & strung some lights on the bushes...simple but festive! Taylor enjoyed getting help with flashlights....even a bit of hide-and-seek was played.